1. Field
Example embodiments relate to semiconductor materials and/or devices including the same, and more particularly, to semiconductor materials, transistors including the same, and/or electronic devices including the transistors.
2. Description of Related Art
Transistors are widely used as switching devices and/or driving devices in electronic devices. In particular, since a thin film transistor (TFT) may be manufactured on a glass substrate or a plastic substrate, TFTs may be used in display apparatuses such as organic light-emitting display apparatuses or liquid crystal display apparatuses. The performance of a TFT may depend on properties of a channel layer (e.g., semiconductor layer).
Many commercially available display apparatuses use a TFT including a channel layer formed of amorphous silicon (hereinafter, referred to as an amorphous silicon TFT) or a TFT including a channel layer formed of polycrystalline silicon (hereinafter, referred to as a polycrystalline silicon TFT). An amorphous silicon TFT may have a charge mobility of about 0.5 cm2/Vs or so, which is so low and may limit an operating speed of a display apparatus including an amorphous silicon TFT. A polycrystalline silicon TFT may be formed by a manufacturing process that includes crystallization, impurity doping, and activation processes. As a result, manufacturing processes and costs for a polycrystalline silicone TFT may be higher than those for an amorphous silicon TFT. Also, it may be difficult to ensure uniformity of a polycrystalline silicon layer in the polycrystalline silicon TFT; consequently, image quality may be reduced when the polycrystalline silicon layer is used as a channel layer of a large-size display apparatus.
In order to realize a next generation high-performance and/or high-resolution large-size display apparatus, a TFT having excellent performance is desirable. In this regard, research has been conducted on an oxide TFT using an oxide semiconductor having a high carrier mobility as a material of a channel layer. However, a conventional oxide TFT may not ensure excellent switching characteristics (e.g., ON/OFF characteristics) and high reliability. Accordingly, there is a demand for a transistor (TFT) having excellent switching characteristics and high reliability as well as having a high mobility.